


Some Mysterious Use

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: The Separation of Talent and Skill [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jayson knew getting called up from the ECHL would mean a complete change in playing style. Integrated teams always did. He just wasn’t expecting what he got.</p><p>Written for the Hockey Holiday Fic Exchange for the prompt “Penguins, gen, special abilities AU. Does everyone have some sort of ability, or maybe just some people, maybe some keep it secret, maybe there are special rules by the league and tests to make sure nobody cheats... magical creatures is also cool. I'd prefer if Sid were "mundane"/human.”</p><p>Beta by <a href="ifonlynotnever.tumblr.com">Ras</a> and <a href="rhodesstark.tumblr.com">Lizzy</a>; all remaining mistakes are my own. Title from <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/100/230.29.html">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Mysterious Use

**Author's Note:**

  * For [schneefink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/gifts).



> For better or for worse, this prompt grew into a rather epic story in my head. Of the two times I tried to start a Sid-centric version of said story, one version completely missed the mark, and the other would have been about 15k, which was more than I had time for between stating and the posting deadline. So, for better or for worse, this is now a verse! What I wrote here is a slice-of-life, mildly outsider PoV from that verse.
> 
> However, as it _is_ a slice of life, there's some major explaining that needs to be done. The fic can be read with just the first three points; the rest will help clarify some more, but spoil some of the fic.
> 
>  **Points of Interest:**  
>  1\. Humans with superpowers are widely known and accepted, referred to as "Specials" as compared to "Mundanes."  
> 2\. Most professional sports are segregated, meaning there are Mundane leagues and Special leagues for purposes of fairness. However, in 1979, under pressure from the growing relative popularity of their competing Mundane league, the WHA, the NHL because the first professional league in the Western Hemisphere to be fully integrated. The AHL stayed as the primary Special feeder league, while minor league Mundane leagues popped up to feed into the NHL as well.  
> 3\. Although the 1994 lockout was still due to owners' desire to introduce a salary cap, the 2005 lockout was instead caused by the NHLPA's desire to introduce a clause about the ratio of Specials to Mundanes on a team.
> 
>  **SPOILERS FOR THE FIC AND THE VERSE**  
>  4\. Goaltenders are required to be Mundanes by the CBA.  
> 5\. NCAA Hockey is fully integrated.  
> 6\. Almost half of the Pens roster are Mundanes, and this is more than is required by the CBA. Of interest to this piece, the list of Mundanes includes Crosby, Kunitz, Dupuis, Fleury, and Megna.

Jayson's hands shake the whole way to the rink. It's one thing to be playing for a segregated ECHL team and another altogether to be driving up to an integrated NHL practice. He's played in integrated leagues before, but it's something else entirely at the professional level and he's certain there's been a mistake.

Still, he parks his car, grabs his gear, and makes his way into the locker room with a confidence he doesn't feel.

The room's close to empty, but Malkin grins up at him the second he walks in and something in Jayson's chest loosens. He nods to Malkin before making his way to the locker with his name stamped clearly above it and unloading his gear.

The room fills up slowly around him, the familiar boisterousness making it easy for Jayson to hide, keeping his head down as he laces up. He knows he's only here because of who he is and not what he can do, so if he just keeps his head down--

Fleury grins at him from too close and it's too much, too much, because Fleury's the same as he is, but that's different, he's a _goalie_ \--

Jayson manages a tiny smile and nods back. If he just keeps his head down--

It's different on the ice. He knows what he's capable of here, ice under his skates, stick in his hands. This is familiar, comfortable, constant, even as what he can do with the team is less clear. He lets the pressure fall away and just does what he knows how to do.

Coach calls him over halfway through practice to talk to him about lines and combinations and he finds himself nodding along while only half listening, eyes on the team the whole time. He hasn't really had time to watch integrated teams play close-up since Nebraska, and he wants to take in as much as he can before he's on the ice with them for real.

"Megna?"

He blinks back over to Bylsma. "Sorry?"

Bylsma's smile is affectionate. "They're fun to watch, aren't they?"

Jayson feels his face heat up. "I miss it."

Bylsma nods. "I can understand that. Still, I need you to tell me what you think about--"

"Whatever you think, Coach. I'm with you whatever you think."

Bylsma nods. "Glad to hear it. Then I want you running drills with Sid for a while."

Jayson blinks once and regrets his big mouth immediately.

\----

The game doesn't go their way. The game doesn’t go their way, and the -1 stings, leaving him expecting to make his way back to the ECHL with his tail between his legs. Instead, Bylsma tells him he’ll be coming up to Toronto with them, though they sit him in the hotel instead of playing him.

It feels… not quite like a promise. But like potential. And for now, he’ll take it.

\----

When he watches that night, it’s with a different sort of understanding. Maatta moves with the ease and grace of years of ice Affinity, his movement on the ice deceptive and automatic. More often than not he seems to be where the puck is headed as soon as it’s being shot, the ice whispering its path to him.

Jokinen too is all over the place, and Jayson’s seen the way his eyes flit and dart around the ice now, but without seeing them up close it looks like it did before--pure instinct and not the dozens of minute calculations Jokinen had admitted to doing constantly.

Paulie moves with a speed and ease that Jayson envies. He'd toned it down in practice, and seeing him on the ice after playing next to him makes that even more obvious. The way he coasts from one end of the ice to the other, racing back to defend against players before Jayson has even assessed them as a threat.

Somehow it's harder now to hold onto his conviction that he belongs on that ice than it was in college. His time with the ECHL has made him forget the disparity in truly integrated teams, made him forget how small he feels next to those giants. He understands, of course, that the ice is a part of him too, just like it is them. But the Specials move like they were made for this, and it’s easy to envy the fact that they’re out there and he’s not. With two full Special lines and a stacked Mundane defense, it’s hard to see how they ever thought he would fit with their style.

Still, he watches the second line, and tries to take heart in Crosby and Kunitz and Dupuis and the easy way they connect, passes quick and solid and slick, even if they don't move as fast as Paulie, or with Jokinen's cleverness or Maatta's instinct. Crosby weaves and moves and if he hadn’t seen him in action himself, hadn't _spoken_ to him, Jayson would be sure--

But he knows better. So he bites his lip, watches, and learns.

\----

When Malkin--Geno--grins at him from across the Carolina visitors’ room, he feels something in his bones light up. Something like… but he doesn’t look at it too hard, just grins back as he pulls his pads on over his head.

Kuni too comes over at one point, fist outstretched. “Let’s light it up out there tonight.”

Jayson doesn’t think he could smile any wider, but he does, somehow, fist connecting with Kuni’s. “Damn right.”

\----

It’s like flying. Everything seems to fall into place, shift after shift and he doesn’t know how it happens, just _knows_ Tanner’s where he needs to be when he lets the shot fly, feels it in his bones as he coasts around the side of the rink, hands in the air with a certainty he shouldn’t feel. But Tanner and Sid are right there, eyes and grins wide and bright in front of him.

It’s easy--too easy--to let the high pull him through the rest of the game, his whole body lit up from the inside out, power and finesse and speed pulling out of his bones in a way he’d forgotten he was capable of. Maybe hadn’t ever even known.

But here, in a Pens jersey, everything seems so much easier. Like he was made for this.

And then he’s in the right place in the right time and it’s a two point night and he almost screams himself hoarse, laughing and delirious with joy.

It’s Kuni that makes it to him first, arms tight and sure around him.

“Fuckin’ showed ‘em, didn’t you, kid?”

The laugh feels automatic, helpless. “Showed ‘em what?”

“What a goddamn undrafted Mundane can do.”

And Jayson can’t help but grin right back. “Damn right.” And his eyes find Sid, racing toward him just as sure and grinning just as wide. “Damn right.”

\----

Sid’s hand is strong around his shoulder, grinning and shaking him vigorously on the bench, and Jayson just smiles helplessly back.

“It’s not the way I wanted it to go.”

Sid laughs, shouting over the roar of the crowd around them. “It never is. You don’t dream of it that way; off your pad and in. But hey, we gotta take ‘em any way we can get ‘em.” His eyes are clear and serious as they bore into his. “We gotta show ‘em we fuckin’ _belong_ here.”

And Jayson just stares up, certain and at home in a way he’d almost forgotten.

Because Sid, for all his prestige, _gets_ it. Fought his way to the top harder than anyone else. Made a place for players like Jayson the same way Yzerman did by fighting to play, except Sid did it by getting captained even with his status.

So Jayson grins, raising his hand for a fist bump that Sid returns with an equally wide grin.

He doesn’t know where he’s going. He doesn’t know what’s waiting for him in the future. But he knows that there’s no other captain he’d rather be under.

For now, he’ll take it.


End file.
